That's not what I'm being told. DM cabin pressure issues have been raised. Let's all rattle our contacts about this.

Any more info about the DM cabin pressure issue that JimO has mentioned? Was this just a rumour or a misunderstanding/mistranslation, or is there more substance to it? If so, is this about cabin pressure issues during the actual descent, or during leak checks before undocking, or something else? (I think, I have read somewhere that they had different readings from instruments in MRM-2 and Soyuz during leak check of the vestibule when they should all have been the same, but I can't find the article anymore.)

« Last Edit: 09/28/2010 02:43 PM by Zero-G »

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"I still don't understand who I am: the first human or the last dog in space." - Yuri Gagarin

Soyuz TMA-18 space vehicle successfully landed this weekend returned not only 3 crew members of the International Space Station, but also two containers with fruit flies. The flies born in zero-gravity are to help the scientists to study space impact risk mitigation for the genomes.The flies studied under Polygen experiment were chosen due to their reparation system which is similar to the human’s one. In addition, the flies propagate quickly, giving the scientists the opportunity to have much material for their work.Fruit flies were delivered to the station by Progress in mid September, 10 maggots in each of the two containers. Then, after oviposition of the flies hatched from the maggots, the second generation of the flies appeared. Several dozens of insects returned to the Earth last Saturday, in order to let scientists verifying their capabilities in zero-g, with the further on purpose to use the results for similar evaluations of the human body.

Soyuz TMA-18 space vehicle successfully landed this weekend returned not only 3 crew members of the International Space Station, but also two containers with fruit flies. The flies born in zero-gravity are to help the scientists to study space impact risk mitigation for the genomes.The flies studied under Polygen experiment were chosen due to their reparation system which is similar to the human’s one. In addition, the flies propagate quickly, giving the scientists the opportunity to have much material for their work.Fruit flies were delivered to the station by Progress in mid September, 10 maggots in each of the two containers. Then, after oviposition of the flies hatched from the maggots, the second generation of the flies appeared. Several dozens of insects returned to the Earth last Saturday, in order to let scientists verifying their capabilities in zero-g, with the further on purpose to use the results for similar evaluations of the human body.

HOUSTON -- Recently returned from a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson will be available for live satellite interviews from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston between 8:15 a.m. and 10 a.m. CDT on Friday, Oct. 15.

To arrange an interview, reporters should contact producer Jeremiah Maddix at 281-483-8631, 281-414-6995 or [email protected] by 2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 14. Video b-roll of Dyson's flight will air Oct 15 from 7:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. on NASA Television.

Dyson and her crewmates launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-18 crew capsule from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in April. During the 174-day mission, Dyson served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 23 and 24 and conducted three spacewalks, logging 22 hours and 49 minutes outside the station. The crew replaced a faulty cooling pump module on the station's backbone, known as the truss. The Expedition 24 crew landed safely in central Kazakhstan on Sept. 25.

Dyson was born and raised in Arcadia, Calif. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from California State University at Fullerton and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California at Davis. Dyson flew as a mission specialist on the STS-118 space shuttle mission. On the flight, she operated Endeavor's robotic arm and directed four spacewalks as the intravehicular crew member.

NASA TV's Live Interview Media Outlet channel will be used for the interviews. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 3, transponder 9C, located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 Mhz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity. FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.

The interviews also will be broadcast live on NASA TV. For streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

The S1 Truss PM unexpectedly failed on July 31st 2010, sparking an intense period of ISS reconfiguration, and development of procedures for what ultimately turned out to be three epic EVAs to R&R the failed Pump Module.

According to the SSPCB notes, the failure investigation team are looking at “whether ammonia could have leaked into the pump motor stator area (sealed and filled with N2 normally)”, and will be determining “whether the ammonia flow was interrupted in the ‘secondary’ flow areas in the pump (used to lubricate and cool the bearings and friction surfaces)”.

The notes also state that in late 2008, it was observed that the overall pump pressure was reduced, and that delta pressure (PSI-D) across the pump was showing a variance from nominal values. Current spikes were also noted during this period.

The SSPCB were informed that the delta pressure and current draw data were not part of standard analysis in the past, but that they will be reviewed regularly in future as they may be useful for identifying possible pump degradation. It was also stated that 370mS (milliseconds) prior to the 54A current spike that occurred during the July 31st failure, the current draw from the pump went to zero Amps.

Being that the pump has only been on the ground for a couple of months, I would guess that it is still in the process of failure investigation. That's not the area that I am in, but I'm sure that when they have finished their testing, the information will be disseminated to the correct panels and everybody will find out in due time. Just takes a while